Murder Plot
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THIS SUMMER, PUCKER UP WITH BLACK LIPS and more... INSIDE TODAY VAMPIRES ARE EVERYWHERE, HOME LIGHTING GOES RETRO AND QUICK STIR FRIES GET EVEN YUMMIER TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29 2009
The lucky pilot who survived two bad plane crashes P3
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Established October 17 1887
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Lovesick teen’s ‘murder plot’ Schoolgirl held in 3 women die in mountain hiking tragedy sting as ‘assassin’ reveals he’s a cop ALEX ELISEEV
W
HILE her mother and grandmother browsed through Sandton City, 18-yearold Brittany Mitchell sneaked off to meet an assassin at the Mugg & Bean coffee shop. She sent him an SMS to confirm he was there. He was at a table near the entrance. His SMS reply gave her his table number. Her alleged plan to pay a hit man R2 000 to kill the woman she blamed for a broken heart was finally coming together. This is the astounding story revealed by the police this morning. According to the police this is what happened immediately after the two had met: Mitchell, who was celebrating her 18th birthday that day, sat down with the man wearing a pair of sunglasses. She double-checked he was there to meet her. He confirmed it. The teenager handed over R2 000 and a photograph of her exboyfriend’s mother – the woman she believed caused the break-up and who had a protection order against her. The man took off his sunglasses. Mitchell didn’t know it, but this was the signal for police officer Captain Appel Ernst to make her move. The “assassin” facing the teenage girl was in fact detective Superintendent Gert Kruger. And she was now under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder. Mitchell’s shock turned to tears, and a man sitting at a nearby table approached to check if everything was fine. Kruger quickly filled him in, putting the money and photograph into evidence bags. The trap had been filmed by undercover officers seated at tables nearby. Kruger allowed the youngster to point out her mother. He approached the unsuspecting woman, saying “we have a problem”. For Ernst, who has 26 years’ service, her first undercover operation was a thrill and a success. She said Mitchell kept asking if her arrest would be in the news, apparently terrified of the exposure. This bizarre plot – which Kruger said equalled something from the crime channels on television – played out last week Wednes-
day. Mitchell spent two nights behind bars and was released into her parents’ custody, on R2 000 bail at the Randfontein Magistrate’s Court on Friday. “She has gone back to Pietermaritzburg (her hometown),” Ernst said. “She is busy writing exams.” Mitchell is due back in court on December 1. The teenager is a matric pupil at a top KwaZulu-Natal private school and allegedly met her 24-year-old boyfriend on social networking site Facebook last year. He lives with his family in Melville and, it appears, his 45-year-old mother was the driving force behind him ending the relationship. It alleged Mitchell harassed the family to the point where they took out a protection order against her. The boyfriend’s family has not been identified but, according to Kruger, were shocked to hear of the foiled plot. Reluctant to give away too many details ahead of the pending court case, Kruger explained that Mitchell had made contact with a man working in the “security business” in Randfontein. It is not clear how she got onto him, but it may have been through an advert. She sent him an SMS with her request, hoping to hire him. The man notified the police and Kruger was assigned to investigate. “At first we thought it was a joke. We were communicating mostly through SMSes,” he said. Kruger and Mitchell spoke once and he felt the teenager was serious. The Sandton meeting was initiated by Mitchell because she could catch a lift up to Joburg with her mother. Kruger said Mitchell was “determined to get the job done”. He said a genuine hit man would have probably asked for more money but the R2 000 she offered showed “how cheap life is”. “But she’s still young and you don’t know how young peoples’ brains work. She’s still a child.” Ernst was asked to assist with the sting because she is female and was able to make the arrest. Ernst and Kruger work in the Randfontein area. Mitchell reportedly suffers from depression and has displayed suicidal tendencies, which helped her secure bail.
She is still young and you don’t know how young people’s brains work
PERISHED: Baronese Jongbloed, 51, is one of three people who died of exposure during a hiking trip in the Swartberg near Oudtshoorn.
PICTURE: PETER NEETHLING
Doomed climbers’ last hours in Cape snowstorm MURRAY WILLIAMS IMAGES have emerged of the desperate last hours of three Cape Town women who died in a snowstorm – leaving their families shattered. In scenes likened to a Himalayan tragedy, distraught family and friends have described how the trio perished in the mountains above the Cape Garden Route, the Swartberg. Charmaine Appels, 46, worked for a government Seta in Observatory. Debbie Raubenheimer, 51, was involved in catering. And Baronese Jongbloed worked in the provincial education department. “She would have been 51 today,” said her only child, her son Oriel. He described how his mother had been part of a six-strong team of hikers who had embarked on a fiveday hike. “On Thursday, Braai Day, they gathered at our house for a final preparation,” he explained. The other three in the party were kindergarten teacher Linda Smith, 46, and brothers Leon and Jeremy
Hans, 38 and 42, a surveyor and airforce instructor respectively. Yesterday, police said none of the survivors wished to speak, and were severely traumatised. Initially, their group was meant to have comprised a dozen hikers, but half had opted out. One of them, Hillary Hill, yesterday painfully described how her hiking colleagues had died, based on what the survivors had told her. “They all started together on Sunday morning, everything went well. “Deborah normally walks slowly. Charmaine normally walks at the back with her. The others went on ahead, then waited for them” – several times. But the weather had then taken a truly ferocious turn. “It started to rain very hard, the wind came up, and then it started snowing,” Hill said. At this point, Jeremy Hans and Smith were together in the lead, with Leon Hans and Jongbloed together behind them, while Raubenheimer and Appels were together
DID NOT MAKE IT: Rescuers recover the first body yesterday. further back. “At some point, Baronese could not go any further. Leon told her to leave her rucksack, and was basically dragging her along through the snow.
“He struggled with her,” Hill reported. “Leon told his brother and Lindy to go ahead and try and get some help.” Ahead was a hikers’ hut, where Jeremy Hans tried to contact his wife. As two search and rescue parties were launched from Oudtshoorn, Leon Hans was having to take a desperate decision. “He couldn’t move Baronese any further. So he pushed her under a bush to protect her, and ran ahead to the hut. About 6km,” Hill said. There, he grabbed his elder brother and the pair ran back to Jongbloed together. “But she was dead already. Jeremy to resuscitate her, but she didn’t make it,” Hill said. The snowstorm had been so severe, and the temperature so cold, that she had died in a matter of hours in broad daylight. “Leon said he had never done a hike when it was so cold. If they had had to stick together, all of them
would have been dead,” Hill said. The one rescue party travelling by foot had to turn back at nightfall, while another team in a 4x4 reached the hut at about 4am on Monday morning. It was only yesterday that they found Appels’s body. It appeared that she had fallen into some water. And Raubenheimer’s body was found at midday yesterday by chopper. Hill surmised that Appels must have tried to walk down the trail once Raubenheimer had died. “She would never have left her,” she said. Within the group, Jongbloed and Appels still had their most impressive trek fresh in their memories – the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in January. “When I joined scouting 16 years ago, being the loving caring supportive parent she is she joined the scouting movement too,” Jongbloed’s son Oriel said of her hiking career. “There’s probably nothing that could have been done to prevent this.”
Jet-ski death and arrest end birthday trip, stun families MICHELLE PIETERSEN
CULPABLE HOMICIDE: Andre Bester
TWO FAMILIES are shattered after a birthday celebration in Cambodia ended in the tragic death of one son and the arrest of another. Eleven days ago, Capetonian Paul Hutchins had arranged a holiday for a few friends, including Andre Bester, to celebrate his birthday. The group of friends were enjoying a jet-ski outing when Hutchins and Bester’s machines collided. Hutchins was killed and Bester was subsequently arrested for his death.
GOOD NEWS FOR SAA PASSENGERS
For the best ticket deals and widest choice book online at www.flysaa.com
A family member of Bester, who was charged with culpable homicide after the accident, said yesterday both men were living in Cambodia and worked at the same forestry company. Speaking to The Star last night, Bester’s uncle, Nicolaas Bester, said the family were “completely devastated” when they received the news that Andre had been arrested. The 27-year-old from Pretoria has been detained in the Sihanouk Ville Prison in Cambodia, where he has been held for 11 days since the
accident on September 18. Nicolaas said Andre had been working in Cambodia for just over six months. His employer had notified his father, Jan Bester, of the accident and his arrest. Three days after the incident, his father had travelled to the Asian country to support his son. Nicolaas said he had last spoken to his brother on Sunday. He said Jan had said he was allowed to visit Bester daily to bring him food, as very little was provided
INSIDE TODAY MATRIC MATTERS
for the prisoners. He said Bester was in an “extremely volatile” state as the conditions of the prison were “terrible”. “It’s not a nice situation. He is locked up in the most terrible circumstances in a combined cell with a huge number of hardened criminals, all mixed together,” he said. The family were “extremely upset” as they were uncertain about the justice system procedures in Cambodia, Nicolaas said. Although the hearing had been
HERE’S JOHNNY
postponed a few times before, they were hoping that today’s bail hearing would have a positive outcome. The devastated family of Hutchins, who was killed in the fatal accident just three days after his 46th birthday, believe that the incident was a “freak accident”. Hutchins’s nephew, Brett Thomp, said his mother, grandmother and aunt had left for Cambodia yesterday to fetch his body and “pay tribute to his life”. Thomp said the family was “incredibly emotional” about their
Page 31
love one’s tragic death. He said his grandmother’s heart “was broken” when she heard her son had died. “She was very emotional… it’s the second son that she has lost,” said Thomp. He added that Hutchins was the life of the family, a colourful and unique character, with a giving heart, who “just made everyone feel more positive”. Thomp said the family was expected to return to Cape Town on October 6.
The lucky pilot who survived two bad plane crashes P3
with
Established October 17 1887
R5,00 inc VAT
(R5,30 outside Gauteng) Zimbabwe US$1
Annual subscribers: R4,36
★★★★★
www.star.co.za
★★★★
Lovesick teen’s ‘murder plot’ Schoolgirl held in 3 women die in mountain hiking tragedy sting as ‘assassin’ reveals he’s a cop ALEX ELISEEV
W
HILE her mother and grandmother browsed through Sandton City, 18-yearold Brittany Mitchell sneaked off to meet an assassin at the Mugg & Bean coffee shop. She sent him an SMS to confirm he was there. He was at a table near the entrance. His SMS reply gave her his table number. Her alleged plan to pay a hit man R2 000 to kill the woman she blamed for a broken heart was finally coming together. This is the astounding story revealed by the police this morning. According to the police this is what happened immediately after the two had met: Mitchell, who was celebrating her 18th birthday that day, sat down with the man wearing a pair of sunglasses. She double-checked he was there to meet her. He confirmed it. The teenager handed over R2 000 and a photograph of her exboyfriend’s mother – the woman she believed caused the break-up and who had a protection order against her. The man took off his sunglasses. Mitchell didn’t know it, but this was the signal for police officer Captain Appel Ernst to make her move. The “assassin” facing the teenage girl was in fact detective Superintendent Gert Kruger. And she was now under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder. Mitchell’s shock turned to tears, and a man sitting at a nearby table approached to check if everything was fine. Kruger quickly filled him in, putting the money and photograph into evidence bags. The trap had been filmed by undercover officers seated at tables nearby. Kruger allowed the youngster to point out her mother. He approached the unsuspecting woman, saying “we have a problem”. For Ernst, who has 26 years’ service, her first undercover operation was a thrill and a success. She said Mitchell kept asking if her arrest would be in the news, apparently terrified of the exposure. This bizarre plot – which Kruger said equalled something from the crime channels on television – played out last week Wednes-
day. Mitchell spent two nights behind bars and was released into her parents’ custody, on R2 000 bail at the Randfontein Magistrate’s Court on Friday. “She has gone back to Pietermaritzburg (her hometown),” Ernst said. “She is busy writing exams.” Mitchell is due back in court on December 1. The teenager is a matric pupil at a top KwaZulu-Natal private school and allegedly met her 24-year-old boyfriend on social networking site Facebook last year. He lives with his family in Melville and, it appears, his 45-year-old mother was the driving force behind him ending the relationship. It alleged Mitchell harassed the family to the point where they took out a protection order against her. The boyfriend’s family has not been identified but, according to Kruger, were shocked to hear of the foiled plot. Reluctant to give away too many details ahead of the pending court case, Kruger explained that Mitchell had made contact with a man working in the “security business” in Randfontein. It is not clear how she got onto him, but it may have been through an advert. She sent him an SMS with her request, hoping to hire him. The man notified the police and Kruger was assigned to investigate. “At first we thought it was a joke. We were communicating mostly through SMSes,” he said. Kruger and Mitchell spoke once and he felt the teenager was serious. The Sandton meeting was initiated by Mitchell because she could catch a lift up to Joburg with her mother. Kruger said Mitchell was “determined to get the job done”. He said a genuine hit man would have probably asked for more money but the R2 000 she offered showed “how cheap life is”. “But she’s still young and you don’t know how young peoples’ brains work. She’s still a child.” Ernst was asked to assist with the sting because she is female and was able to make the arrest. Ernst and Kruger work in the Randfontein area. Mitchell reportedly suffers from depression and has displayed suicidal tendencies, which helped her secure bail.
She is still young and you don’t know how young people’s brains work
PERISHED: Baronese Jongbloed, 51, is one of three people who died of exposure during a hiking trip in the Swartberg near Oudtshoorn.
PICTURE: PETER NEETHLING
Doomed climbers’ last hours in Cape snowstorm MURRAY WILLIAMS IMAGES have emerged of the desperate last hours of three Cape Town women who died in a snowstorm – leaving their families shattered. In scenes likened to a Himalayan tragedy, distraught family and friends have described how the trio perished in the mountains above the Cape Garden Route, the Swartberg. Charmaine Appels, 46, worked for a government Seta in Observatory. Debbie Raubenheimer, 51, was involved in catering. And Baronese Jongbloed worked in the provincial education department. “She would have been 51 today,” said her only child, her son Oriel. He described how his mother had been part of a six-strong team of hikers who had embarked on a fiveday hike. “On Thursday, Braai Day, they gathered at our house for a final preparation,” he explained. The other three in the party were kindergarten teacher Linda Smith, 46, and brothers Leon and Jeremy
Hans, 38 and 42, a surveyor and airforce instructor respectively. Yesterday, police said none of the survivors wished to speak, and were severely traumatised. Initially, their group was meant to have comprised a dozen hikers, but half had opted out. One of them, Hillary Hill, yesterday painfully described how her hiking colleagues had died, based on what the survivors had told her. “They all started together on Sunday morning, everything went well. “Deborah normally walks slowly. Charmaine normally walks at the back with her. The others went on ahead, then waited for them” – several times. But the weather had then taken a truly ferocious turn. “It started to rain very hard, the wind came up, and then it started snowing,” Hill said. At this point, Jeremy Hans and Smith were together in the lead, with Leon Hans and Jongbloed together behind them, while Raubenheimer and Appels were together
DID NOT MAKE IT: Rescuers recover the first body yesterday. further back. “At some point, Baronese could not go any further. Leon told her to leave her rucksack, and was basically dragging her along through the snow.
“He struggled with her,” Hill reported. “Leon told his brother and Lindy to go ahead and try and get some help.” Ahead was a hikers’ hut, where Jeremy Hans tried to contact his wife. As two search and rescue parties were launched from Oudtshoorn, Leon Hans was having to take a desperate decision. “He couldn’t move Baronese any further. So he pushed her under a bush to protect her, and ran ahead to the hut. About 6km,” Hill said. There, he grabbed his elder brother and the pair ran back to Jongbloed together. “But she was dead already. Jeremy to resuscitate her, but she didn’t make it,” Hill said. The snowstorm had been so severe, and the temperature so cold, that she had died in a matter of hours in broad daylight. “Leon said he had never done a hike when it was so cold. If they had had to stick together, all of them
would have been dead,” Hill said. The one rescue party travelling by foot had to turn back at nightfall, while another team in a 4x4 reached the hut at about 4am on Monday morning. It was only yesterday that they found Appels’s body. It appeared that she had fallen into some water. And Raubenheimer’s body was found at midday yesterday by chopper. Hill surmised that Appels must have tried to walk down the trail once Raubenheimer had died. “She would never have left her,” she said. Within the group, Jongbloed and Appels still had their most impressive trek fresh in their memories – the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in January. “When I joined scouting 16 years ago, being the loving caring supportive parent she is she joined the scouting movement too,” Jongbloed’s son Oriel said of her hiking career. “There’s probably nothing that could have been done to prevent this.”
Jet-ski death and arrest end birthday trip, stun families MICHELLE PIETERSEN
CULPABLE HOMICIDE: Andre Bester
TWO FAMILIES are shattered after a birthday celebration in Cambodia ended in the tragic death of one son and the arrest of another. Eleven days ago, Capetonian Paul Hutchins had arranged a holiday for a few friends, including Andre Bester, to celebrate his birthday. The group of friends were enjoying a jet-ski outing when Hutchins and Bester’s machines collided. Hutchins was killed and Bester was subsequently arrested for his death.
GOOD NEWS FOR SAA PASSENGERS
For the best ticket deals and widest choice book online at www.flysaa.com
A family member of Bester, who was charged with culpable homicide after the accident, said yesterday both men were living in Cambodia and worked at the same forestry company. Speaking to The Star last night, Bester’s uncle, Nicolaas Bester, said the family were “completely devastated” when they received the news that Andre had been arrested. The 27-year-old from Pretoria has been detained in the Sihanouk Ville Prison in Cambodia, where he has been held for 11 days since the
accident on September 18. Nicolaas said Andre had been working in Cambodia for just over six months. His employer had notified his father, Jan Bester, of the accident and his arrest. Three days after the incident, his father had travelled to the Asian country to support his son. Nicolaas said he had last spoken to his brother on Sunday. He said Jan had said he was allowed to visit Bester daily to bring him food, as very little was provided
INSIDE TODAY MATRIC MATTERS
for the prisoners. He said Bester was in an “extremely volatile” state as the conditions of the prison were “terrible”. “It’s not a nice situation. He is locked up in the most terrible circumstances in a combined cell with a huge number of hardened criminals, all mixed together,” he said. The family were “extremely upset” as they were uncertain about the justice system procedures in Cambodia, Nicolaas said. Although the hearing had been
HERE’S JOHNNY
postponed a few times before, they were hoping that today’s bail hearing would have a positive outcome. The devastated family of Hutchins, who was killed in the fatal accident just three days after his 46th birthday, believe that the incident was a “freak accident”. Hutchins’s nephew, Brett Thomp, said his mother, grandmother and aunt had left for Cambodia yesterday to fetch his body and “pay tribute to his life”. Thomp said the family was “incredibly emotional” about their
Page 31
love one’s tragic death. He said his grandmother’s heart “was broken” when she heard her son had died. “She was very emotional… it’s the second son that she has lost,” said Thomp. He added that Hutchins was the life of the family, a colourful and unique character, with a giving heart, who “just made everyone feel more positive”. Thomp said the family was expected to return to Cape Town on October 6.
